Sovereign Remedy
by Eqgz
Summary: One-shot set in the Wild Card universe. Rika's concern for her partners manifests itself in an unusual way.


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**Disclaimer:**

**Some of the characters herein are trademarked by Bandai and/or Toei. This work is derivative of season 3 of the Digimon television series (Digimon Tamers) and is in no way meant to imply ownership or infringe on any trademark or copyright.**

**Author's Note:**

**This is a story set in the universe of **_**Wild Card,**__**Aces, **_**and**_** Ten Years After. **_** Read those stories first if you haven't already.**

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Sovereign Remedy  
by Eqgz

The mutant Wild One had its front claws firmly dug into the fifteenth story of the Sapporo Arch and was screeching like a thousand insane parrots with their tail feathers on fire. It looked like a gigantic sea-slug with antlers, pincers, and (unsurprisingly for a digimon) rocket launchers. It really wasn't all _that_ disgusting-looking for a mutant from the Outer Edge of the Digital Dimension but it _was_ extremely powerful and had come through to the Real World in search of prey.

That meant it had to die.

_Renamon_, I sent a mental message to my first partner, _See if you can't make it let go of the building. There are still some people inside and any more damage and it may collapse._

_Yes Rika,_ she answered me as she leaped in a high arc toward the thing's head-- or the end of it that had the eye stalks, anyway.

She hit it feet first with the sound of a wrecking ball slamming into a whale carcass. Its screeching wavered and several of its eye stalks turned to focus on her as she bounced off of its rubbery hide but it kept its grip on the building. Tough sucker.

It fired a salvo of four rockets at Renamon as she fell back, which just gave her something to use to maneuver. She kicked off of them as if they were stepping stones in a garden pond and gained enough altitude to effectively unleash a Diamond Storm attack.

The glowing shards or razor-sharp crystal sliced a good chunk of blubber off the thing's back and popped a couple of its eyes. One claw loosened its grip slightly as the mutant turned to unleash another barrage of missiles at Renamon.

_Rika, damnit_! Came the impatient thoughts of my other partner. _Let me at it!_

Coyomon was crouched on the roof of a nearby apartment building, just trembling with eagerness to get at the monster. His lips were peeled back from his fangs and his tail was thrashing with pent-up energy. I let him stew for a few more seconds. He was so cute when he was "straining at the leash". And the way the muscles of his butt and thighs bunched as he readied himself to leap was very nice, indeed. In fact, the cream colored feathers of fur that began just below his--

"Rikaaaa!"he howled out loud.

I sighed. _Go play_, I told him, and he shot upward like a missile-- right into the thing's forest of eye stalks. He actually tied two pairs of them into knots before the lumbering slug had a chance to react. But react it did.

A tube-like tongue shot out of its maw and whipped up in a curve, pointing at Coyomon where he danced on its head. I could see the thing's jaw muscles spasm and watched as a surge of-- something-- rushed up the tube. I don't know if he heard it, or felt it through the monster's body, or what, but Coyomon whirled and let loose a Fang Flurry attack just as stinking purple goo started spewing from the end of the tongue.

The red-hot energy of the Fang Flurry burned up every speck of the sticky venom. Good thing too, because my rash coyote partner's weak spot was poison. The smell of the burning gunk was appalling even where I was hovering several hundred meters away. I can't imagine what it was like for my partners, especially with their more sensitive noses.

I watched as Coyomon dove through the acrid cloud to grab the thing's tongue and wondered what he thought he was doing. The monster shrieked even louder and launched an entire pod of rockets at Renamon while whipping its tongue (with Coyomon still clinging to it) back into its jagged maw.

I had a moment of unease, which was foolish of me. My partners were the best. Even when they fought as Rookies there were few digimon who could equal them. And they proved how good they were only an instant later. Renamon danced between the rockets, dodging them as easily as if they were balloons drifting on the wind. She snagged one and flipped it around, sending it right back into the pod it had emerged from with a satisfying explosion.

At nearly the same time Coyomon burst outward through the thing's teeth. It's howl of agony revealed what he'd been up to. The monster's tongue was tied into a firm overhand knot.

The mutant let go of the building in rage and agony and began to snap the enormous blades of its claws in a frantic effort to cut my partners into pieces. Even though they circled it at high speed it still had enough eyes left to keep track of both of them and came very close to catching them a couple of times.

Renamon came to a stop above its head and just barely within range of its claws, building up energy for another Diamond Storm. _Slowly_ building up energy. _Too_ slowly. The monster saw its chance and thrust its huge claws at her-- which was just what she wanted.

Distracted into going for what looked like an easy kill, the mutant had left its underside unprotected. Coyomon slammed both feet into its belly and triggered a devastating Earth Splitter attack. The thing was blasted backwards and Renamon quit stalling her attack and directed it right into the same spot that Coyomon had just hit.

The mutant didn't even even have time to damage any more buildings on its way to the ground. It burst into data bits before falling more than a few meters.

"Yahoo!" Coyomon yelled as he pirouetted through the diminishing red cloud. "BALEETED!" Renamon contented herself with a small, satisfied smile. The Sapporo Arch quit swaying and began to rebuild itself. Within a minute people reappeared on the streets and traffic got back to its regular flow. A group of school children and their digimon pressed themselves against the windows of their train as it swooped through the air under the big arched building and waved to my partners.

Just another normal day in Tokyo.

--(())--

At dinner that night we rehashed the battle.

"How did you _know_ it was about to spray you with poison?" I asked Coyomon.

"Smelled it," he said smugly. "The goo was pushing air ahead of it through the tube and just the vapors were enough to make my eyes water."

I didn't bother asking them how they'd arraigned the final feint and finishing move. They'd fought together for so long that stuff like that was as instinctive as breathing to them.

"Weird combination of abilities," Coyomon commented. "Techno stuff like those rockets doesn't often show up on something that uses organic weapons like that venom."

"Well," I shrugged it off, "mutants _are_ weird. You've got to be prepared for anything."

"Ah, this one was a push-over," Coyomon laughed. "We didn't even need mods, let alone merging-- which is kind of a shame."

"I _was_ a fairly easy one," Renamon agreed.

"Don't get too over-confident, you guys," I told them as sternly as I was able. "The next one may shoot poisoned ice-needles or have unpredictable magical-type attacks like the one in San Francisco."

Coyomon tossed another gyoza into his mouth and waved a dismissive hand. "Ahh-- with O'Nonaka-sama at our backs, how can we loose? And if you decide we need to merge, what power in all the worlds can stand against us? Feh! Bring on the baddies!"

_Arrogant jerk_, I thought to myself lovingly as I watched him happily flip gyoza up off the plate and snap them out of the air.

He noticed my silent smile after a second and paused uncertainly. "You want some more gyoza?" he asked, holding one out to me with his chopsticks. I leaned over and closed my lips on it, slowly drawing it into my mouth, my eyes never leaving his. His aura rippled with waves of purple lust. _Damn_, I loved doing that to him!

--(())--

I met Yasuramon a few days later in the Valley of Stars. It was technically within the South Realm but the Digital Dimension had gotten so huge that nearly half of it was beyond the control of the Sovereigns. Yasuramon didn't like that.

The Sovereign of the South was a control-freak and hated to think that there was anything she couldn't bend to her will. If she couldn't dominate, she manipulated. If she couldn't manipulate, she deceived. If she couldn't do any of those-- well, she usually sent Kayamon to deal with it.

The Valley of Stars was a peaceful and private place for the two of us to talk because a few weeks earlier Kayamon had solved a "problem" there. The rebellious army of dark digimon who had gathered in its eternal twilight to prepare their attack were gone, leaving only whispered stories of their demise behind. The tales were chilling enough to keep even the bravest of digimon away. We had the place to ourselves.

"That mutant had the strength of three normal Megas," I told the giant fox Sovereign. "They just played with it like a terrier with a rat. I thought the poison saliva would have given Coyomon a bit of trouble but it didn't even _surprise_ him. Renamon dodged a volley of thirty missiles at near supersonic speed--"

"I don't understand," Yasuramon said. "Yes, your partners are very powerful and clever. Why is this a problem?"

"I'm afraid they're getting complacent, maybe even bored." I said. "Think of it-- Coyomon-- _bored_."

She wasn't stupid. She knew exactly what the combination of those two words could lead to. She laughed. "You humans! You can't handle paradise when it's served to you on a golden platter!"

"No humans here," I growled at her. "And my partners aren't--"

"Oh please," she tossed her head dismissively. "You may be digital now but you still _think_ like a human. So does Coyomon-- born and bred on Earth. And Renamon? Thoroughly domesticated, if you ask me."

She was needling me on purpose. Just part of her obsession with control-- always probing for buttons to press. I cut the legs out from under her. "Yes, I suppose you're right," I said in the meekest voice I could muster. "But that doesn't help in solving my problem."

She frowned. She liked it better when I argued with her. "Is it _my_ job to keep _your_ partners entertained?"

"It's not just them. Even with the weapon restrictions imposed by the digignomes, there have been a dozen little wars in the last decade on Earth. Lots of other fighting, too. I think the whole _world_ is getting complacent and bored."

_Yeah, go ahead and laugh you overgrown bitch_, I thought to myself. I comforted myself with memories of the day I stomped her mangy ass into the ground and remained silent. I still needed her cooperation.

"Forgive me," she said with complete insincerity. "I suppose I've seen the effects of boredom in my own Realm." She indicated the empty valley around us. "Things are really quite peaceful and prosperous now, yet Marchosimon was able to raise an army of rebellious Nightmare Soldiers against me."

"Then maybe my proposal will benefit the Digital Dimension as well as Earth."

Yasuramon gave me a long, considering look before replying. "Alright-- what do you suggest?"

--(())--

Coyomon picked himself up off the pavement, staggering a bit. "Sweet, bleeding Tesla! Laser beams _and_ poisonous spines? What is--"

The gigantic mutant turned with blinding speed and vomited huge jagged chunks of ice onto Renamon, who was trying to sneak up on its blind side, smashing her into the freezing river.

Coyomon's aura flared and he unfolded into his Mega form, eyes blazing and fangs bared. He charged in, swinging his long-bladed spear, too angry to bother with a precise energy attack. He ripped into the mutant's armor-plated hide, his snarl building into a full-throated roar as he cut his way through the thing's chrome digizoid scales. God, I loved seeing him angry!

Renamon dragged herself out of the river, sputtering. _Rika. Matrix, please?_

I swiped a blue card through her digivce just for show and sent her the burst of code to trigger her transformation into her Ultimate form, Taomon. I watched in satisfaction as the clouds in the night sky over Dublin flickered with reflected energy from the titanic battle. My partners were really having fun with this one.

They finally defeated it, Yeii Coyomon actually burrowing inside of the thing while Taomon tore its outsides to shreds with her Thousand Spells attack.

_Nicely done,_ I told them. They were both battered and exhausted and grinning their heads off. I congratulated myself for shaping the mutant into an enemy that had been a real challenge for them. Yasuramon had been eager to help when I had explained my plan and was, even now, rounding up another batch of mutants from the Outer Edge to be modified and enhanced into worthy enemies.

My partners positively glowed with happiness as they dedigivolved back into their Rookie forms and I felt a bright surge of satisfaction. I'd have to make the next one _really_ dangerous. It had been too long since we'd all merged together to fight a foe.

That was _always_ fun.

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**Author's Note:**

**Thank you for reading. **

**Coyomon's cry of "BALEETED!" is an in-joke for those of you who know Homestar Runner and Strong Bad's emails.**

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End file.
